The move to using infrastructure-as-code (IaC) for automated, reliable cloud deployments is a necessity in modern cloud computing.
Cloud Drift Detection With Policy-as-Code
Cloud configurations can change and change often. Introducing new technologies, releasing new features and supporting new business requirements entail a constant flow of configuration changes in web application development. However, drift occurs regardless of how well-designed your IaC implementation is. The term “drift” is used to denote a state in which the actual state of […]
Russian Dev Exodus | Puppet IPO FAIL | Intel 18A Ahead of Sched.
In this week’s The Long View: More than 100,000 tech workers leave Russia, Perforce buys Puppet, and Intel moves faster than planned.
Knowledge Is Power
I was doing some research over the weekend, and it became abundantly clear that you can find an Ansible script to do pretty much any repetitive task in your infrastructure. This is good news for Ansible users, and the pool of available scripts will, no doubt, continue to grow as critical mass effect kicks in. […]
Speaking the Language of Applications
I arrived early to a meeting, and the pleasant security guard at AT&T suggested I take a look at their innovation museum while I wait. Among motion picture sound technology and life-size photos of switchboard operators on roller-skates stood a transistor prototype. The transistor was invented in Bell labs in 1947, and it changed the […]
Configuration Files and DevOps
When DevOps appeared on the scene, configuration file management tools already existed. They weren’t used by everyone, but a fair number of organizations saw the power of configuration file versioning/management, and were using them. An interesting thing seems to have happened while DevOps evolved. Those tools are more popular, but while we’ve standardized on things […]
Patrick McClory on Building Successful DevOps Organizations
Patrick McClory has been writing code, managing DevOps and designing scalable application infrastructures for more than 10 years. Most recently, as COO and CTO of DualSpark, he served as an expert Amazon Web Services consultant, helping clients capitalize on the benefits of cloud architecture and design with modern and innovative software, infrastructure and automation strategies […]
Survey: DevOps Divide Grows a Little Wider
The gap between the number of organizations that have invested in DevOps is starting to narrow, and IT organizations that made the transition to DevOps earlier are starting to see accelerated returns on that investment, according to the latest survey by Puppet. The annual “State of DevOps Report” finds that out of 3,200 IT professionals […]
6 Big, Bad Mistakes in Configuration Management, Part 2
In Part One of my article on big, bad mistakes in configuration management, I reviewed the dangers of using the wrong tools for the configuration management job. Provisioning management tools, application release automation tools and continuous integration tools each have their place in your DevOps toolchain. But they should not be used as a substitute […]
6 Big, Bad Mistakes in Configuration Management, Part 1
Configuration problems come in many flavors. Some are mere nuisances. Often though, configuration errors can lead to more serious mishaps like application performance problems, policy compliance violations or even security vulnerabilities. They can often go undetected, quietly doing their damage in the background while everyone’s attention is focused elsewhere. Unfortunately, I find that configuration management […]